Corrections director: 24.5% of Wyoming's incarcerated population has contracted COVID-19

CHEYENNE — Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 24.5% of Wyoming’s incarcerated population has contracted the virus at some point, and there have been no deaths from COVID-19 among those individuals, the state Department of Corrections director told lawmakers Friday.

The figure, which reflects testing data from all five of the state’s correctional facilities, was among a handful of COVID-19 updates provided by DOC Director Dan Shannon to the Joint Appropriations Committee during its agency hearings Friday.

Along with the percentage of incarcerated individuals to test positive, 20% of staff at the correctional facilities have contracted the virus at some point, and 33% of staff have been required to quarantine due to known exposure to the virus.

During the virtual meeting, Shannon, who became the agency’s permanent director in late October, provided a summary of his department’s steps taken in response to the pandemic: halting visitations, implementing medical screenings for staff, undergoing constant sanitation, and enforcing mask use for staff and inmates.

In July, the department began testing all of its staff and incarcerated individuals, and it has been conducting ongoing surveillance testing of those groups. As of its announcement of the across-the-board testing in early July, the department was reporting zero COVID-19 cases among staff and incarcerated individuals.

“If there is a bright outcome on the horizon, it’s our department’s performance, actually,” Shannon said. “It has been exceptional compared to our surrounding states, such as Montana and Utah. They currently have the National Guard working inside as correctional officers. Colorado is presently reporting several thousand positive inmates. We’re going to keep up the good fight and make the adjustments as necessary.”

However, Shannon was questioned by Rep. Jared Olsen, R-Cheyenne, regarding the “F” grade Wyoming received from the Prison Policy Initiative for its prison system’s response to the pandemic. The department director pushed back on the methodology used for the report, which gave more than half of the states an “F” or “F+” grade.

“First and foremost, we’re automatically dropped to a ‘D’ if we don’t turn over our COVID-19 emergency plan, which I refused to do,” Shannon said. “I wasn’t going to disclose that.”

The ratings also weighed whether the state’s governor issued an executive order to authorize the release of medically vulnerable people and those nearing the end of their sentences, something that never occurred in Wyoming.

“We presented a plan to the governor’s office in the event that we had mass casualties and what requirements there would be (for release). However, I would not support that notion,” Shannon said. “So there’s the reasons, I believe, for the ‘F.’”

The only area where Wyoming gained a few points in the report was for its handling of personal protective equipment, which Shannon said is widely available in the facilities.

“All staff working in an isolation unit or within the confines of a segregated area have full PPE: N95 masks, gloves, shields, gowns,” Shannon said. “Inmates are no different. They’re provided the same equipment.”

The presence of the virus in Wyoming’s facilities appears to have largely correlated with the level of community spread in general. For example, in early November, as active cases across Wyoming were reaching record highs, more than 100 residents at three of Wyoming’s correctional facilities had the virus.

As of Friday, two staff members and three incarcerated individuals had it across the state’s facilities, according to Shannon.

With zero virus-related deaths among its incarcerated population, Wyoming is among six states that have yet to report a death from COVID-19 in its prisons, according to data from the Marshall Project. The compiled data shows that so far, at least 1,657 individuals residing in prisons nationwide have died from COVID-19.